RADIO
2014 Rookie of the Year is Poised to Take a Step Forward in 2015
Starting pitcher Jacob deGrom was one of the best mid-season fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups of 2014. Originally expected to work out of the Mets bullpen, deGrom gave many fantasy baseball owners a much needed jolt to their pitching lineup with his high strikeout totals and low WHIP and ERA.
He kept hitters at bay last season with a three pitch combination of 90 plus MPH conventional and two-seam fastballs interspersed with the rare infusion of an extremely effective hard cutter. Batters who already couldn’t keep up with his hard stuff were further kept off balance when they had to deal with his hard slider, curve and nasty change. His use of a wide variety of pitches helped him record a swinging strike rate of 11.7%, which is more than three points higher than the league average for starters. (SwStr% is a measure of how often a pitcher causes a hitter to swing and miss at his pitches)
NY Mets insiders describe deGrom as a pitcher who not only has talent, but he knows how to use it. He progressively pitched better as the season went on. After a June 16th, 2014 start in which he gave up six earned runs in 4.1 innings pitched, deGrom settled into his role in the starting rotation and went 9-2 with a 1.90 ERA and 1.00 WHIP. He averaged 10 strikeouts per nine innings over his final 15 starts.
With an above average 62.8% first strike percentage, deGrom did a good job of getting ahead of hitters last season. He used that to his advantage by maintaining a very low walk rate. He also kept hitters in check by inducing them to hit an above average rate of ground balls. (Successful pitchers are usually able to get batters to hit a high percentage of ground balls.) Opposing batters hit ground balls at a rate of 45.4% when hitting against deGrom. The league average is 44%.
Need more evidence that fantasy baseball owners should own shares in deGrom this upcoming season? Not only did deGrom post a stellar 2.69 overall ERA last year, but he also pitched to an outstanding 3.19 SIERA. (SIERA is an ERA estimator designed to measure how well a pitcher actually performs.)
He also does a good job of keeping the ball in the park. The league average for pitchers giving up fly balls to opposing hitters is 35%. Batters that faced deGrom only hit fly balls at a rate of 31.4%. That stat and the fact that he makes half of his starts in a pitcher friendly ball park helped limit his HR/FB rate to 6.1. A rate between five and seven is considered great.
In Summary
The NY Mets have a rare problem that all major league baseball teams would love to have - an overabundance of starting pitching. There have been whispers that the Mets might be willing to trade Zack Wheeler or Noah Syndergaard in order to improve their offense but it looks like deGrom is firmly entrenched within the Mets' starting rotation for 2015. The Mets’ former ninth round pick started his baseball career as a shortstop, but all signs point to continued success on the mound. He has all of the tools and the pitching know how needed to have a dominant sophomore season, and if he comes at a discount in your draft, you should pounce on him. DeGrom is the 30th ranked started in the RotoBaller consensus starting pitcher rankings, which seems like a fair price but also leaves room for a tidy profit.
